It`s STILL The Immigration Benefit Fraud, Stupid!

Warning

Think the Mexican border in Arizona
is insecure? Think again. The leaky
southwest border is a drop in the bucket compared to
the massive potential for
immigration benefit fraud inside the Citizenship and
Immigration Services [USCIS
or CIS] division of the Department of Homeland Security
[DHS].

Considering the wholesale fraud of
the
1986 amnesty disaster and the government`s
unwillingness to even measure the level of fraud in more
recent
amnesty give-away programs, the damage would be
incalculable if America ever subjects itself to another
immigration benefit free-for-all.

In its two most recent reports
dealing with immigration benefit fraud, the GAO found
that the massive potential for fraud at USCIS was the
same, or even worse, after the recent post-9/11
bureaucratic reshuffling.

As of
January 2003, the alien-friendly district
adjudications offices, asylum offices and regional
service centers of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) were consolidated into their very own
agency (USCIS) within the Homeland Security department.

But in the two reports, from
January 2002 and October 2004—i.e. before and after the
DHS transition—the GAO found that as far as
immigration benefit fraud goes, it was
business as usual in the federal immigration
bureaucracy.

Here`s the proof. First from the
GAO`s January 2002 report—“Immigration Benefit
Fraud: Focused Approach Is Needed to Address Problems,”Report # AO-02-66 [PDF]:

“Although the extent of the
benefit fraud problem is unknown, internal and
external reports and views of INS officials indicate
that the problem is pervasive and significant.“
(Pg. 14)

“INS is now only attempting
to quantify the scope and extent of the immigration
benefit fraud problem.” (Pg. 16)

“Further, INS has not
established guidance for opening immigration benefit
fraud investigations or for prioritizing
investigative leads.” (Pg. 17)

“INS is hampered in
establishing meaningful goals for benefit fraud in
that it does not know the extent of the problem. . . .
Institutionally, INS has not done much to combat this
significant problem, which threatens the integrity of
the
legal immigration system because it results in
INS`s granting valuable benefits to
ineligible aliens.” (Pg. 33)

And in a clear case of deja vu,
here`s what the GAO reported again in October
2004—after the
DHS bureaucracy was created—“Homeland
Security: Management Challenges Remain in Transforming
Immigration Programs,”Report
# GAO-05-81—[PDF]—[text]:

“At the
time of our site visits, how ICE [Immigration
and Customs Enforcement] and CIS should communicate
and coordinate with each other in cases of suspected
benefit fraud has not been formally defined by either
CIS or ICE headquarters, and the field officials we
contacted said that this has caused disagreement among
CIS and ICE field officials.“

“The
difficulty between CIS and ICE investigations regarding
benefit fraud is not new. We have noted in a past report
that INS had numerous problems related to its
enforcement of benefit fraud, including a lack of
protocols for adjudicators and others in coordinating
benefit fraud and a lack of criteria for investigators
in prioritizing benefit fraud cases.“

“Prior
to the transition, INS had begun to place a priority on
investigating benefit fraud perpetrated by large-scale
organizations or persons of special interest, and this
priority has continued under ICE. As a result, some CIS
field officials told us that ICE would not pursue single
cases of benefit fraud. ICE field officials who spoke on
this issue cited a lack of investigative resources as to
why they could not respond in the manner CIS wanted.“
(Pg. 17)

“One
CIS manager and one ICE manager in the field indicated
that while dismantling large-scale smuggling rings is
important, single cases of benefit fraud can have
national security implications. For example, a person
who is allowed to remain in the country as a result of
committing marriage fraud can become a naturalized
citizen in 3 years and facilitate the entry of other
persons into the United States who could possibly pose
security risks.“(Pg. 18)

Considering the deplorable state of
immigration fraud detection at the INS—and now at
CIS—it`s painfully obvious that if garden-variety “good“
illegal aliens on the street can file a phony
immigration application,
“bad”illegal aliens can file one too.